Releases

Biography

“Ricarda Cometa is playing music that is as visceral as a punch to the gut, twisting and breaking all sorts of rhythms from Latin America in an avant-garde way that sets them far apart from the current generation of re appropriators of such traditions, whether they come from the ‘punk’ milieu or the electronic scene. Improvisation is the key here, damaging all the commonplace elements into something new and harder-hitting, freeing them violently into a wilderness of noise and lo-fi production, de-colonizing them into a dance-party savage with color and deformed shapes.” – David Murrieta, A Closer Listen

Ricarda Cometa (Tatiana Heuman / Jorge Espinal) is a mixed Argentine-Peruvian duo playing since 2009 (formerly a trio prior to 2017). Percussive sounding guitar lines zigzag, intersect, and intertwine with some fiery and precise drums. Influenced by no-wave, math rock, african / latin, and asian ritual music they are always exploring and expanding through improvisation the sounds that inhabit the verge of rhythm and noise.

2017 was a busy year for Ricarda Cometa, marking their first outing as a duo, as well as their first European tour in June/July visiting Germany, Austria, Czech Republic, Poland, Croatia, Serbia, and Macedonia. As the new format grew stronger the music turned increasingly dynamic and visceral, and in September 2017 Ricarda Cometa went back to the studio to record Ricarda Cometa 2, slated for release in summer 2018 via Nefarious Industries.

Media

News

“Take a deep breath and prepare your mind for the unsettling reality of improvised South American noise rock fueled uh, improvisation. The second record from improvisational Argentina/Peru based instrumentalists RICARDA COMETA appears as an anxious and chiming shake of Latin rhythms and clangorous guitar snaking runs that only occasionally burden themselves with reason and relationship. What initially feels like two musicians inhabiting entirely different worlds at the same speed eventually warms into a handful of clever points of interest.” – Grizzly Butts

Following the June release of their latest album, Ricarda Cometa 2, and the corresponding European tour in support of the record, Argentine-Peruvian improvisational instrumental duo RICARDA COMETA has just issued a live video of an entire live set. In related news, drummer Tatiana Heuman is visiting the US to promote her new solo LP and is performing throughout the Northeastern US over the coming weeks.

Influenced by no-wave, math rock, African, Latin, and Asian ritual music, RICARDA COMETA continually explores and expands their sound which lies on the verge of rhythm and noise, the interplay between members Tatiana Heuman and Jorge Espinal completely engrossing and immersive. The fully improvised and instrumental Ricarda Cometa 2 explodes with their singular blend of ritual soundscapes, mutant noise, and dancing tropical grooves. Percussive guitar lines zigzag, intersect, and intertwine with explosive and precise drums and percussion. With eleven tracks in twenty-four minutes, the record recorded by Sam Nacht at Estudio Libres in Buenos Aires, Argentina, mixed and mastered by Jorge Espinal, and completed with appropriately vibrant cover art by Hideyuki Katsumata.

RICARDA COMETA played live extensively across Europe in support of Ricarda Cometa 2, with a nearly month-long tour during June and July. Upon their return to South America after the tour, the band played several summer shows throughout their native continent. The new live video was catpured during this run, at an intense August show at Centro de Arte Sonoro in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The video was filmed by Christian Nicolas Bravo López, Florencia Curci, and Marcelo Heuman, and shows the band’s incredible interplay in an up-close and intimate setting.

Ricarda Cometa 2 is available digitally and a in a limited CD run via Nefarious Industries. Place orders at the label webshop HERE and Bandcamp where the album is streaming HERE.

The newly-released live video was filmed at one of RICARDA COMETA’s final shows of the year, as they prepare to enter the studio again in the coming months to record their follow-up album for release in 2019. Stand by for further updates in the months ahead.

Drummer Tatiana Heuman has just released a mind-numbingly original new solo album, QEEI, through the label Astro Nautico. She will be doing a brief tour throughout the Northeastern US, where she’ll cross paths with several Nefarious Industries artists and much more. See the confirmed dates at her official website HERE and stream/purchase the album HERE.

Noisey notes that RICARDA COMETA’s signature sound is, “based on an entirely original blend of dissonance, improvisation, muscle, brains, and above all, rhythm—that phenomenal cadence that generic noise rock generally lacks, and which goes much further than mere repetition of beats and noise patterns. RICARDA COMETA has it, and it’s damn good.” The Quietus’ review included, “Ricarda Cometa 2 is wholly instrumental, but its arrangements are lyrical and florid. Heuman can play like a proto-free jazzer or Valerie Scroggins from ESG, frequently in the same movement; Espinal shreds the demarcation between rhythm and melody with a playing style that compares to Captain Beefheart, Bill Orcutt, Arto Lindsay and, especially, US Maple’s Mark Shippy.” A Closer Listen praised in part, “Ricarda Cometa 2 is even shorter than its predecessor, but it is with great admiration that I say that it is more. More intricate, more intense, more punishing and powerful… it is, in other words, more alive, and that’s saying a hell of a lot.”

PopMatters remarks on the album, “The eleven-song collection takes listeners on a wild, noisy ride that involves that never loses its focus on Latin-inspired rhythms, but which ultimately sends them through the musical grinder a few dozen times along the way. If listeners found the herky-jerky twists and turns of math rock or Mr. Bungle challenging, RICARDA COMETA take these musical complexities to new heights here.” Treble called their output, “minimal but intense, showcasing a woozy instrumental style that showcases a heavy no wave influence as well as a more powerful indie sound that recalls the likes of Battles and Gnarwhal. The duo pulls and twists melody into odd shapes and urgent rhythms. It’s tense, strange, mangled and wiry music that hits hard but challenges conceptions of what rock music should be. If this is even rock music.”

“For those who go dizzy over Sonic Youth’s many side projects, or the recent art-rock sound-clash of Martin Bisi’s BC35, Ricarda Cometa 2 is an improvisational work well worth exploring. Recorded by Sam Nacht at Estudio Libres in Buona Aires and mixed/mastered by Jorge Espinal, Ricarda Cometa 2 recalls the sonic ecstasy of the no-wave movement and taps into that same rich vein of de-constructivism that saw artists such as Glenn Branca experiment with form and tuning in ways so far ahead of their time, their work is still being analysed and explored some thirty years later.” – SonicAbuse

“An unhinged feral presence makes itself felt throughout RICARDA COMETA’s Ricarda Cometa 2. Defying easy categorization, the album has a distinctly late 70s discordant flavor about it. Elements of This Heat, Pere Ubu, DNA, and more filter their way into a uniquely tortured skronk. Percussion blasts forward with a clear-eyed intensity ready to grab the listener by the throat. Melody, rhythm, these are twisted into unholy sorts of shapes. Grooves have an elastic quality to them for RICARDA COMETA pushes them to the breaking point only for them to snap back into place. […] RICARDA COMETA finds the beauty in the ugly with the absolutely life affirming spirit of Ricarda Cometa 2.” – Beach Sloth

“A revelation outta thin air, courtesy of this dazzlingly trigonometrical spritz of minimal rock clang from Buenos Aires. […] Ricarda Cometa 2 is wholly instrumental, but its arrangements are lyrical and florid. Heuman can play like a proto-free jazzer or Valerie Scroggins from ESG, frequently in the same movement; Espinal shreds the demarcation between rhythm and melody with a playing style that compares to Captain Beefheart, Bill Orcutt, Arto Lindsay and, especially, US Maple’s Mark Shippy.” – The Quietus

Argentine-Peruvian improvisational instrumental duo RICARDA COMETA is on their way to Europe to kick off their latest tour, and their first tour supporting their Ricarda Cometa 2 album, released last week through Nefarious Industries.

Influenced by no-wave, math rock, African, Latin, and Asian ritual music, RICARDA COMETA is always exploring and expanding through improvisation the sounds that inhabit the verge of rhythm and noise, and the interplay between members Tatiana Heuman and Jorge Espinal is engrossing and immersive. The fully improvised and instrumental Ricarda Cometa 2 explodes with their singular blend of ritual soundscapes, mutant noise, and dancing tropical grooves. Percussive guitar lines zigzag, intersect, and intertwine with explosive and precise drums and percussion. With eleven tracks in twenty-four minutes, the record recorded by Sam Nacht at Estudio Libres in Buenos Aires, Argentina, mixed and mastered by Jorge Espinal, and completed with appropriately vibrant cover art by Hideyuki Katsumata.

In conjunction with the release of the new album, RICARDA COMETA returns to Europe this week, kicking off their new tour this Saturday, June 9th in Oslo, Norway. The tour runs through July 2nd, ending in Berlin, Germany.

RICARDA COMETA states of the new album’s release, “It’s funny how this album, the first one as a duo, was recorded soon after coming back from our first European tour last year and it’s being released a week before starting our second one. These Ricarda Cometa 2 vibes will be brought to Scandinavia, Germany, Austria, Czech Republic, and Poland during June. And we are all worked up for that.”

Ricarda Cometa 2 available digitally and a in a limited CD run via Nefarious Industries, and can be found at the label HERE and Bandcamp where the album is streaming HERE. A cassette version is also available through Vestibular Records.

Noisey offers in part, “RICARDA COMETA started out as a trio, but they’ve been a duo since 2017. And it’s not as if Tatiana Heuman and Jorge Espinal need another set of hands to complete their signature sound, which is based on an entirely original blend of dissonance, improvisation, muscle, brains, and above all, rhythm—that phenomenal cadence that generic noise rock generally lacks, and which goes much further than mere repetition of beats and noise patterns. RICARDA COMETA has it, and it’s damn good.” PopMatters remarks on the album, “The eleven-song collection takes listeners on a wild, noisy ride that involves that never loses its focus on Latin-inspired rhythms, but which ultimately sends them through the musical grinder a few dozen times along the way. If listeners found the herky-jerky twists and turns of math rock or Mr. Bungle challenging, RICARDA COMETA take these musical complexities to new heights here. But these compositions are about more than impressing the audience with freakish time changes or tempo shifts or melodic maneuvers that seem to contradict all we know about melody.”

With their premiere of the album’s “Panca Y Piquín” Treble noted, “The track is minimal but intense, showcasing a woozy instrumental style that showcases a heavy no wave influence as well as a more powerful indie sound that recalls the likes of Battles and Gnarwhal. The duo pulls and twists melody into odd shapes and urgent rhythms. It’s tense, strange, mangled and wiry music that hits hard but challenges conceptions of what rock music should be. If this is even rock music.” A Closer Listen’s intense review praises, “Ricarda Cometa 2 is even shorter than its predecessor, but it is with great admiration that I say that it is more. More intricate, more intense, more punishing and powerful… it is, in other words, more alive, and that’s saying a hell of a lot. Let yourself loose, and dive into the eyes and teeth of those body parts you’ve never cared to listen to, let yourself destroy the memory that impairs their free movement, let your experience be renewed.”

“…eminently corporeal, powered by the clean spurts of Espinal’s guitar and amplified by Heuman’s restrained-yet-punchy drumming. […] RICARDA COMETA’s music demands to be clearly followed, every crease and fold in the new flesh a motive of aesthetic attention. Your body should dance in ways it never has, each new position a new limb with which to appreciate the guitar’s intricate noodling and the drums’ marking of unconventional pulses, a music meant not for your mind to get lost in but for your body to be sharpened by. […] At almost 24 minutes, Ricarda Cometa 2 is even shorter than its predecessor, but it is […] more intricate, more intense, more punishing and powerful…” – A Closer Listen

As Argentine-Peruvian improvisational instrumental duo RICARDA COMETA prepares for the release of their new Ricarda Cometa 2 album this Friday through Nefarious Industries – and the upcoming European tour in support of the record – PopMatters is streaming the entire album.

The members of RICARDA COMETA issue of the new album’s release, “It’s funny how this album, the first one as a duo, was recorded soon after coming back from our first European tour last year and it’s being released a week before starting our second one. These Ricarda Cometa 2 vibes will be brought to Scandinavia, Germany, Austria, Czech Republic, and Poland during June. And we are all worked up for that.”

PopMatters remarks on the album, “The eleven-song collection takes listeners on a wild, noisy ride that involves that never loses its focus on Latin-inspired rhythms, but which ultimately sends them through the musical grinder a few dozen times along the way. If listeners found the herky-jerky twists and turns of math rock or Mr. Bungle challenging, RICARDA COMETA take these musical complexities to new heights here. But these compositions are about more than impressing the audience with freakish time changes or tempo shifts or melodic maneuvers that seem to contradict all we know about melody.”

Influenced by no-wave, math rock, African, Latin, and Asian ritual music, RICARDA COMETA is always exploring and expanding through improvisation the sounds that inhabit the verge of rhythm and noise, and the interplay between members Tatiana Heuman and Jorge Espinal is engrossing and immersive. The fully improvised and instrumental Ricarda Cometa 2 explodes with their singular blend of ritual soundscapes, mutant noise, and dancing tropical grooves. Percussive guitar lines zigzag, intersect, and intertwine with explosive and precise drums and percussion. With eleven tracks in twenty-four minutes, the record recorded by Sam Nacht at Estudio Libres in Buenos Aires, Argentina, mixed and mastered by Jorge Espinal, and completed with appropriately vibrant cover art by Hideyuki Katsumata.

Nefarious Industries will release Ricarda Cometa 2 digitally and a limited CD run this Friday, June 1st; find CD at the label HERE and Bandcamp HERE. A cassette version is also available through Vestibular Records.

In conjunction with the release of the new album, RICARDA COMETA will return to Europe on tour through most of June, with more new dates continually being confirmed and added to the itinerary. See the latest routing below and watch for the finalized set of tour dates in the coming days.

“The 11-song collection takes listeners on a wild, noisy ride that never loses its focus on Latin-inspired rhythms but which ultimately sends them through the musical grinder a few dozen times along the way. If listeners found the herky-jerky twists and turns of math rock or Mr. Bungle challenging, RICARDA COMETA take these musical complexities to new heights here. […] The most remarkable feat is how often we’re taken to the logical extremes of noise and rhythm, then brought back to the center, all while ingesting therapeutic doses of no-wave, African, Latin, and Asian ritual music in these grooves.” – PopMatters

“Minimal but intense, showcasing a woozy instrumental style that showcases a heavy no wave influence as well as a more powerful indie sound that recalls the likes of Battles and Gnarwhal. The duo pulls and twists melody into odd shapes and urgent rhythms. It’s tense, strange, mangled and wiry music that hits hard but challenges conceptions of what rock music should be. If this is even rock music.” – Treble

Treble is now streaming “Panca y Piquín,” the new single from Argentine-Peruvian improvisational instrumental duo RICARDA COMETA’s new album, Ricarda Cometa 2, which is nearing release June 1st through Nefarious Industries.

Influenced by no-wave, math rock, African, Latin, and Asian ritual music, RICARDA COMETA is always exploring and expanding through improvisation the sounds that inhabit the verge of rhythm and noise, and the interplay between members Tatiana Heuman and Jorge Espinal is engrossing and immersive. The fully improvised and instrumental Ricarda Cometa 2 explodes with their singular blend of ritual soundscapes, mutant noise, and dancing tropical grooves. Percussive guitar lines zigzag, intersect, and intertwine with explosive and precise drums and percussion. With eleven tracks in twenty-four minutes, the record recorded by Sam Nacht at Estudio Libres in Buenos Aires, Argentina, mixed and mastered by Jorge Espinal, and completed with appropriately vibrant cover art by Hideyuki Katsumata.

RICARDA COMETA guitarist Jorge Espinal provides, “You could say ‘Panca Y Piquín’ is a mixture of two worlds. Its name comes from two different chili peppers. Panca is from Perú, a long pepper left out to dry being loved by the whole country for its bright red color and overwhelming taste, it´s a chile that is not that hot but is tasty as hell. On the other side of the spectrum you have the Piquín pepper which is from Mexico, and don´t let its appearance fool you, as it looks really cute and small it´s a delicious fiery fucker. Like its title, this song is a heavy mixture between flavor and bite.”

With the “Panca Y Piquín” premiere, Treble notes, “The track is minimal but intense, showcasing a woozy instrumental style that showcases a heavy no wave influence as well as a more powerful indie sound that recalls the likes of Battles and Gnarwhal. The duo pulls and twists melody into odd shapes and urgent rhythms. It’s tense, strange, mangled and wiry music that hits hard but challenges conceptions of what rock music should be. If this is even rock music.”

Nefarious Industries will release Ricarda Cometa 2 digitally and limited CD on June 1st; find CD at the label HERE and Bandcamp, where you can stream the songs “Galgo Tuerto” and “Soltá El Bambú” HERE. A cassette version is also available through Vestibular Records.

In conjunction with the release of the new album, RICARDA COMETA will return to Europe on tour through most of June, with more new dates continually being confirmed and added to the itinerary. See the latest routing below and watch for the finalized set of tour dates in the coming days.

Noisey has debuted the new single by Argentine-Peruvian duo RICARDA COMETA’s impending new album, Ricarda Cometa 2, nearing release June 1st through Nefarious Industries. The portal has issued the album’s captivating third track, “Soltá El Bambú.”

Influenced by no-wave, math rock, African, Latin, and Asian ritual music, RICARDA COMETA is always exploring and expanding through improvisation the sounds that inhabit the verge of rhythm and noise, and the interplay between members Tatiana Heuman and Jorge Espinal is engrossing and immersive. The fully improvised and instrumental Ricarda Cometa 2 explodes with their singular blend of ritual soundscapes, mutant noise, and dancing tropical grooves. Percussive guitar lines zigzag, intersect, and intertwine with explosive and precise drums and percussion.

The track feature at Noisey offers in part, “RICARDA COMETA started out as a trio, but they’ve been a duo since 2017. And it’s not as if Tatiana Heuman and Jorge Espinal need another set of hands to complete their signature sound, which is based on an entirely original blend of dissonance, improvisation, muscle, brains, and above all, rhythm—that phenomenal cadence that generic noise rock generally lacks, and which goes much further than mere repetition of beats and noise patterns. RICARDA COMETA has it, and it’s damn good.”

With eleven tracks in twenty-four minutes, the record recorded by Sam Nacht at Estudio Libres in Buenos Aires, Argentina, mixed and mastered by Jorge Espinal, and completed with appropriately vibrant cover art by Hideyuki Katsumata.

Nefarious Industries will release Ricarda Cometa 2 digitaly and with a limited CD pressing on June 1st; find CD at the label HERE and Bandcamp, where you can stream the song “Galgo Tuerto,” HERE. A cassette version will also see release on Vestibular Records.

In conjunction with the release of the new album, RICARDA COMETA will return to Europe on tour through most of June, with more new dates continually being confirmed and added to the itinerary. See the latest routing below and watch for the finalized set of tour dates in the coming days.

“The Peruvian-Argentine duo’s new track is built on a stark contrast between noise rock, improvisation, and pure rhythm. [..] an entirely original blend of dissonance, improvisation, muscle, brains, and above all, rhythm—that phenomenal cadence that generic noise rock generally lacks and which goes much further than mere repetition of beats and noise patterns. RICARDA COMETA has it, and it’s damn good.” – Noisey

Argentine-Peruvian duo RICARDA COMETA will release their new album, Ricarda Cometa 2, in June through Nefarious Industries, in conjunction with the band’s upcoming European tour. An advance preview of the album’s intense world music rhythms and diverse realms of songcraft has been issued through a premiere of the track “Galgo Tuerto” at New Noise Magazine.

Formed in 2009, RICARDA COMETA performed and recorded as a trio until early 2017 when the band was reborn as a duo comprised of Tatiana Heuman and Jorge Espinal. 2017 was a busy year for RICARDA COMETA, marking their first outing as a duo, as well as their first European tour in June and July, which saw them visiting Germany, Austria, Czech Republic, Poland, Croatia, Serbia, and Macedonia. As the new format grew stronger the music turned increasingly dynamic and visceral, and in September 2017 they returned to the studio to record Ricarda Cometa 2.

The fully improvised Ricarda Cometa 2 explodes with the band’s singular blend of ritual soundscapes, mutant noise, and dancing tropical grooves. Percussive guitar lines zigzag, intersect, and intertwine with explosive and precise drums and percussion. Delivering eleven tracks in twenty-four minutes, the interplay between Heuman and Espinal is engrossing and immersive. Influenced by no-wave, math rock, African, Latin, and Asian ritual music, RICARDA COMETA is always exploring and expanding through improvisation the sounds that inhabit the verge of rhythm and noise. The record was recorded by Sam Nacht at Estudio Libres in Buenos Aires, Argentina, mixed and mastered by Jorge Espinal, and completed with appropriately vibrant cover art by Hideyuki Katsumata.

With the debut of the album’s first single, RICARDA COMETA offers of the song, “‘Galgo Tuerto’ came out during the first day of recording. We had just returned from an intense European tour, so we were kind of on-point and worked up. As a band that mainly works with improvisation, we never know the outcome of what we are going to play. But our main goal is always that the music that is being created feels like a song. Of course, we are talking about a song that we are not going to be able to play ever again.”

Nefarious Industries will release Ricarda Cometa 2 on June 1st through digital providers and with a limited CD pressing; find preorders at the label HERE and Bandcamp HERE. A cassette version will also see release on Vestibular Records.

In conjunction with the release of the new album, RICARDA COMETA will return to Europe on tour through most of June. While the dates are still being finalized, the current routing begins in Oslo on June 9th and runs through June 29th, ending in Torun, Poland. The routing will be finalized in the days ahead.

“RICARDA COMETA is playing music that is as visceral as a punch to the gut, twisting and breaking all sorts of rhythms from Latin America in an avant-garde way that sets them far apart from the current generation of re appropriators of such traditions, whether they come from the ‘punk’ milieu or the electronic scene. Improvisation is the key here, damaging all the commonplace elements into something new and harder-hitting, freeing them violently into a wilderness of noise and lo-fi production, de-colonizing them into a dance-party savage with color and deformed shapes.” – A Closer Listen

“[Galgo Tuerto] is short, sweet, and full of the unique improvised math vibe dissonance that the group is known for. Guitar licks are woven in between discordant chords and a quick paced rhythm structure.” – New Noise Magazine